Exactly one year after being axed by the Maple Leafs, Randy Carlyle plans on spending the anniversary of his firing at the Honda Center on Wednesday night watching that same Toronto team face off against another one of his former employers, the Anaheim Ducks.

Is he a glutton for punishment or what?

Truth be told, if you happen to see Carlyle taking notes in Anaheim once the puck is dropped, he won’t be scribbling derogatory anti-Leaf sentiments or doodling images of team president Brendan Shanahan dangling from a hangman’s noose. That is not Randy Carlyle’s way.

Some 365 days ago, Carlyle’s Leafs were in a playoff spot with a record of 21-16-3, sixth in the Eastern Conference. After Carlyle was relieved of his duties, the Leafs went 9-28-5, their season digressing into one blue-and-white dumpster fire.

Those are the type of numbers that could leave a former coach seething.

But there will be no bitterness when Randy Carlyle peers down from the press box at his former Leafs team Wednesday night. In Carlyle’s mind, chirping and namecalling about the past serves no purpose.

“I don’t think it does anyone any good on either side,” Carlyle said late Tuesday in a phone interview from southern California. “There are things I would have done differently in my time there. And I’m certain there were things I did well. And the one thing I will say is that we were committed to trying to get this group to play a brand of hockey we could win with. We didn’t do a good enough job at it because we didn’t win enough hockey games. It’s as simple as that.

“Now time has gone by. And when I look at the Leafs there has been a fair bit of change there. I think there are seven different players in their lineup than there were last year. That’s a significant amount of turnover. The Leafs are playing five men around the puck, adjusting to the system put in place and they’re doing a pretty good job of it.”

Among the advantages incoming coach Mike Babcock has over Carlyle’s situation in Toronto is the eight-year contract the former Red Wings bench boss has with the Leafs. Unlike Carlyle, Babcock is not playing the role of a lame-duck coach. Unlike Carlyle, Babcock has job security.

Prior to his final season of 2014-15 with the Leafs, management gave Carlyle’s assistants the heave ho. It was a setup poised to fail. Players could ignore Carlyle’s suggestions by thinking, “This guy will be gone before I am.” For most of them, they were right.

These days, Carlyle goes to as many games as he can and takes notes. If a team comes calling — and some already have — he wants to be ready.

The Sharks kicked tires on him over the summer before hiring Peter DeBoer. There was an offer from the KHL, but life in Russia wasn’t a prospect his family was ready to embrace.

The Penguins inquired about him after firing coach Mike Johnston but, according to NHL sources, the Leafs asked for a draft pick in return because Carlyle still is in the final year of his contract with them. Ironically, the rule awarding draft picks in those situations was rescinded by the NHL Board of Governors last month in California and was extinguished on Jan. 1.

And, so, he waits.

“I miss (coaching) a lot. It’s one thing to be in it as a coach, it’s another to be in it as a scout, an observer. That’s where I’m at now.

“I watch the Ducks, watch a lot of the other teams come in. I just want to be prepared in case another opportunity comes down the road. I want to know the systems teams play and the changes they’ve made. I go to at least two games a week. There is an American league team in San Diego which is just 20 minutes away. There is lots of opportunity to see hockey, that’s for sure.

“Hockey comes on TV out here at four in the afternoon so I see plenty of it.”

As a former Leaf player and coach, Carlyle would like to see the franchise become successful one day. Given the scrutiny that goes hand in hand in hockey fishbowls like Toronto and Montreal, however, those markets face a tough task indeed.

“Obviously, there is a lot more scrutiny and a lot more microscopic diagnosis taking place concerning what you do,” he said. “And there is a lot of different opinion. And in Canada — specifically the Toronto and Montreal markets which I would say are the most highly scrutinized of them — there is an opinion on everything you say, everything you do and every way you act. Markets like Winnipeg and Edmonton aren’t quite the same but they still are quite focused and wild hockey markets.

“It’s definitely more difficult. It’s difficult on everyone but it’s more difficult starting with ownership right to the presidents and general managers of hockey clubs. There’s a lot more of that and it makes it more difficult throughout the organization. There is a lot more intensity at every level down to the coaching staff, players, training staff, PR staff. Even media.

“What I think has happened is that with the Internet and the explosion of talk radio, the number of people covering the game of hockey has grown and there’s a huge variety of opinion that is available. And it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. The more radical some people are, the more attention they get. That’s part of the intensity of the market and it will be expected to grow.”

Randy Carlyle hopes his resume will “grow” too, That’s why you’ll find him up in the press box, taking notes, scouting, waiting for that next job opportunity to come — wherever that might be.

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